The Jury is In: Mom 1, Fran 0

It’s amazing how much a reasonably confident bread baker can learn by screwing up a recipe. This week was a learning experience for me after attempting my mother’s scrawled Easter Bread recipe.

I learned:

1. My mom made everything look easy because she’d done it a zillion times before I was even born and she had a knack for and a love of baking.
2. Kneading and moisture are pretty damned important when making bread.
3. Never mess with a ghost mother.

Once it finally rose, my mom’s bread looked pretty good. I was feeling very positive, but was still concerned because I’d never used her recipe before. So, I decided to make that Finnish Spring bread as a back-up. But Mom made sure I forgot to add the eggs until after the bread was already kneaded and ready to rise. (I know she hid them from me to make sure her bread was the only one eaten.) So, I tried to add the eggs afterward, which was a gummy, yucky mess and didn’t work at all. I ended up throwing the whole thing out which really ticked me off.

The good news is Mom’s bread did finally rise. I pulled it out of the oven at 9 p.m. Thursday night. It looked pretty good dressed up with icing and sprinkles. But when we cut into the round bread, I was horrified to see a big hole in the middle and really thick uncooked dough around it. I felt cheated like when you think you’ve gotten a solid chocolate rabbit and find out it’s hollow.

It’s called a hole and glug in baking parlance. Sounds appetizing right? The internet gave these reasons for a hole and glug: not enough moisture, not enough kneading, not using bread dough, but it said nothing about a ghost mother getting revenge for me making fun of her writing.

Looking back on my bread technique, there was a snag or two…both of which were my fault, although I’m convinced Mom was in my kitchen messing with me. The woman hated to lose.

First of all, I quit kneading after about 8 minutes, which was a bad idea. Bread needs to be kneaded about ten minutes according to the Finnish Spring Bread Recipe. Second, I should have dampened the towel I draped over the top of the pan. My mom never did that, but I learned that just making sure the pan is greased and that the dough is turned in that grease isn’t quite enough.

The towels that cover the pan will absorb the moisture from the dough as it rises and the top of the dough gets a little crusty. You should moisten the towels covering the dough as it rises. And if they get dry while your dough is raising, you should spritz the towel with water to keep it moist. (Thank you internet.)

The top did get dry. Instead of cutting that part off, I tried to knead it into the rest of the bread and I shouldn’t have which I think is why I got that big hole and the glug. (Doesn’t that sound like an unappetizing Scandinavian drink?) I suspect these are the lessons that living mothers share with their children and ghost mothers can only stand there, watch and chuckle over.

In the end, Mom’s bread was very good. Everyone loved it, said it reminded them of Gramma and they were all fascinated by my cavernous mini-disaster. It was Easter, so I likened it to Jesus’ empty tomb and a possible Catholic Easter miracle. I will turn the rest of Mom’s Easter bread into French Toast, which is always delicious! It’s great toasted with melted butter on it too, but you have to be careful because the icing sticks in the toaster. Better to toast it in the broiler.

Thanks for coming with me on this culinary adventure. I hope your bread always rises and a hole and glug are things you never have to deal with. And I do hope my mom is resting well knowing the love she showed through her baking will live on through me, as long as I have two arms, a mixing bowl and a tattered recipe of hers.

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